NO TRIVIA

February 5, 2013 – Back in the early 2000s, when MTV2 was still a novelty of non-stop music videos, a profound little interstitial interview/bumper with Del the Funky Homosapien played quite frequently. It featured Del weighing in on hip-hop's massive influence on popular music as a whole. His primary example was how Destiny's Child were, for all intents and purposes, rapping on their chart-topping “R&B” songs. That felt like a big deal to him.

February 4, 2013 – Drake's new single, “Started From the Bottom,” released over the weekend, is slim. But that's the plan for big-time artists in the Internet era who are dropping return singles, it seems. You throw something underwhelming out there because there's no need to do better, let the buzz build (and oh, it will, regardless), and follow it up with something far more substantial when the stakes are higher later on. Call it the Beyonce model.

February 1, 2013 – When will the picking of J. Dilla's bones stop?

February 1, 2013 – The big deal, if you are concerned about the narrative of American Idol and not, say, how boss Nicki Minaj is behaving, or how awesome her outfits are, or the way in which she seems to, with little provocation, expose all kinds of backwards-ass assumptions about the soul-killing music industry, is that Thursday night's show provided viewers with the last batch of contestants who would be going to Hollywood.

January 30, 2013 – This one's special. Atlanta by-way-of-Philadelphia rapper Sean Falyon's “Follow the Beat,” featuring Ina Williams off his album SFBE III: Do Me No Favors, is rap & bullshit, good and proper.

January 25, 2013 – So, the XXL Freshman Voting thingy we're all supposed to care about is not something to actually care about. Vote for Riff Raff because he actually sort of deserves it. Vote for Riff Raff because this contrived rap Internet event is a joke and voting for Jody Highroller puts you on some "Writing in a pig for president" pseudo-subversive wave.